Chapter 32.2
Zong Luo stood outside the door, his whole body stiff, like a wooden sculpture.
In the inner room, both the witch doctor and the imperial physician were inside, the servants carried basins of water, and then brought out a basin of bloody water from the inside.
Yuan Jia stood at the door, his white eyebrows were slightly lowered, and his countenance was full of worry.
He seemed to be muttering to himself, or to the listening Zong Luo who had lost his memory.
“His Majesty’s health has been getting worse and worse over the years. Obviously he was born as a military general, fought in the battlefield for many years and has the superb skill and internal force to protect his body. Two years before, he could stay awake all night correcting memorials as usual, and still be full of energy the next day, and he could go directly to the court wearing a dragon robe. “
The prince in white clenched his fists.
He knows.
After his rebirth, he faked his death and fled outside for a year. According to the timeline, he would have already gone to the border at this time in his previous life.
When he was at the border, Imperial Censor Xue sent him a secret letter, saying that His Majesty’s dragon body was becoming unwell day by day. He was advised to send more memorials or forms to the capital to express his feelings and appeal to reason. Maybe things would have changed.
After Zong Luo went to the border, the Sixth Prince once thought that the enemy had been eliminated, thus he secretly signaled half of the courtiers to jointly put pressure on Emperor Yuan, forcing him to select a crown prince.
Unexpectedly, Emperor Yuan became furious when he heard these words, and blood flowed like a river on the spot. He even mercilessly pulled out the Sixth Prince from behind, almost beating him to death in the court hall.
However, since then, Emperor Yuan’s body and bones had indeed become worse and worse.
To sum it up, in about another year, it would completely break out, the sudden serious illness, and the unconsciousness.
During Emperor Yuan’s reign, he used absolute violence and cruel rule to suppress countless scheming, sinister and vicious subordinates under his hand. Even if this was not a conspiracy article, some people were bound to have scheming abilities, and since they were still afraid of this tyrant in their heart, they conscientiously dedicated their talents to Great Yuan’s foundation.
But after Emperor Yuan fell ill, and after the onset of disease came fast, these people could no longer be kept under control.
To complete a building, it required countless solid foundations, only then could a tall building rise from the flat ground.
However, this building would collapse, and only in a matter of seconds.
“He…….how long has His Majesty been like this?”
Zong Luo still pretended to be unaware, with an ignorant expression, faithfully fulfilling his amnesiac persona.
Yuan Jia looked at him deeply, “That is, in the past two years….no, since last year, this old slave sometimes helped serve tea early at night, and could see His Majesty holding a pen on the dragon chair, sleeping, and even when he was resting, his brows did not loosen a little.”
Last year. Too much happened last year.
Zong Luo’s heart skipped a beat.
The Battle of Hangu Pass, and his death.
“Third…..Young Master, it’s this old servant that overstepped his authority, and shouldn’t say these things. But now that you have lost your memory and are blind, some words can be said but not to other people, this old servant also have to—”
Yuan Jia was about to say something more, when suddenly there was a rush of drum-like footsteps in the corridor.
Immediately afterwards, Zong Hongjiu rushed over aggressively from the end, yelling while running, “Where is the Father Emperor?! You, go and announce for this Prince, I want to see my father!”
Just now, the imperial physician implored over and over again that the Great Witch Temple must be cleared out and that the environment must absolutely be quiet, to be able to perform acupuncture treatment for His Majesty and burn incense to diagnose his pulse. Now with Zong Hongjiu’s clamor, his hands almost didn’t tremble, and he broke out in a cold sweat in anxiety.
(TL: In traditional Chinese medicine, incense is said to have physiological and psychological benefits, with different scents nourishing both the body and spirit.)
Yuan Jia frowned, “Your Highness, please lower your voice, His Majesty is still awake, it is precisely the time needed to quietly recuperate.”
Zong Hongjiu was accustomed to absolutely being lawless, and despised eunuchs like Yuan Jia the most.
He turned his head, just in time to see the servant walking out sideways from the quiet room with a basin of water dyed in blood. His pupils shrank instantly, “What’s going on? Where is the Father Emperor? What’s wrong with the Father Emperor? Who hurt the Father Emperor?”
The noise was indeed disturbing. Unfortunately, there was no one present who could discipline him.
Zong Luo was about to open his mouth, but he didn’t expect Zong Hongjiu to notice him in the next second.
There was an undisguised resentment on the face of the ten-year-old.
“Good! Sure enough, it’s really you, the counterfeit! It’s because of you, isn’t it!”
He wanted to rush over, but remembered that Zong Luo had easily pinned him to the ground and beat him up without taking anything last time, thus he immediately shrank back and shouted at the top of his voice, “Servant! Come quickly! There is an assassin here! Quickly take him down and bring him to this Prince!”
In the past, Zong Hongjiu had whatever he wanted in the palace, after such a yell, it was unknown how many people would come in clusters that were always at his beck and call to help him.
Unexpectedly, after he shouted this time, the surroundings, on the contrary, fell silent.
The servant hurriedly put down the basin and knelt down on the floor.
Zong Hongjiu was stunned for a long time, then he realized that the person inside might have woken up, and hurriedly shouted, “Father Emperor!”
The voice of the imperial physician came from the quiet room. “Your Majesty, you absolutely cannot! You need to recuperate now, and it is not advisable to easily get angry and to feel excessive worry.”
Emperor Yuan waved his hand indifferently.
Immediately right after, there was a sound of putting on the imperial robe and slowly rising up.
The door was slowly opened.
Seeing Emperor Yuan woke up, Zong Hongjiu immediately pointed at Zong Luo and said, “Father Emperor, that’s him! He is the counterfeit this Son had mentioned last time, heaven and earth can testify, how can this Son dare lie to the Father Emperor.”
“Scram.”
Emperor Yuan spat out a word coldly.
Zong Hongjiu thought it meant to let Zong Luo go away, and was about to show a triumphant smile. Unexpectedly, Emperor Yuan didn’t even look at him, and his face was vaguely covered with the prelude of a coming storm.
“Zhen said to scram, can’t all of you hear?!”
He turned to Zong Hongjiu, “And you, scram! Don’t let Zhen say it a second time.”
Zong Hongjiu was so frightened that he plopped down on the ground, didn’t dare to say anything more, and ran away in a panic.
He had never seen his Father Emperor get so very angry before, even the last time he eavesdropped in Zhang Palace, Emperor Yuan was not this angry.
In a split second, all irrelevant people had all evacuated the scene, scrambling one after another.
Zong Luo stood where he was, turned and was about to leave, when he heard Emperor Yuan’s voice behind him where neither joy nor anger could be discerned, “You stay.”
Thus his leg that was about to step away had to stop abruptly, and turned around again. Soon, all the people in this area had gone away, and not even the shadow guards were left behind.
In this silence, no one planned to speak in advance.
Zong Luo cupped his hands forward and said, “This common man didn’t know that it was His Majesty before, and has offended His Majesty so much, I hope His Majesty can forgive this……”
Zhii——
All of a sudden, a heavy object was thrown, it grazed his forehead, and shattered to the ground.
It was a teacup full of warm water, and the tea in it spilled all over Zong Luo’s body, leaving a cloud of dark tea stains on his white clothes. Warm blood slowly flowed down from the forehead of the prince in white.
“Zhen will ask you, since you didn’t die, why didn’t you return?”
“Since you are back, why do you pretend to have amnesia in front of Zhen?”
Suppressed anger was present in Emperor Yuan’s voice, like the prelude to a volcanic eruption.
“Do you really think…..that you can hide it from Zhen?”
